Biography

As director of VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, Robert A. Winn, MD, oversees a cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that provides advanced cancer care, conducts groundbreaking research to discover new therapies for cancer, offers high-quality education and training, and engages with the community to make advancements in cancer treatment and prevention equally available to all. He is leading the nation in establishing a 21st-century model of equity for cancer science and care, in which the community is informing and partnering with Massey on its research to best address the cancer burden and disparities of those the cancer center serves, with a local focus but global impact.

His current basic science research, which has been supported by multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Veterans Affairs Merit awards, focuses on the molecular mechanisms and novel therapeutic approaches for human models of lung cancer. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 published manuscripts in peer-reviewed academic journals.

As a pulmonologist, Dr. Winn is committed to community-engaged research centered on eliminating health disparities. He is a principal investigator on several community-based projects funded by the NIH and NCI, including the All of Us Research Program, an NIH precision medicine initiative. Dr. Winn has nearly 20 years’ commitment to Veterans Affairs health services and held appointments at the Denver VA and Jesse Brown VA in Chicago, where he established the first multidisciplinary pulmonary nodule clinic.

Dr. Winn is the president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI); the chair of the National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy; and a member of the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society and LUNGevity Foundation. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Winn has received the National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities CURE Program Lifetime Achievement Award; the AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship; the AACI Cancer Health Equity Award; and the Prevent Cancer Foundation Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Laurel Award for Increasing Health Equity. In 2022, the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Program was renamed the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program (Winn Award), which is committed to increasing diversity in clinical trials and training the new generation of community-oriented clinical researchers.

Dr. Winn holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame and an MD from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.